USA > Pennsylvania > Lancaster County > Columbia > Columbia, Pennsylvania : its people-- culture, religions, customs, education, vocations, industry > Part 7
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10
The "Columbia Belt", as the line was locally known, was officially opened at 11:00 A.M., De- cember 21, 1892, when William and Frank Given took turns operating the car on its first trip around the town. After the trip was over, guests of the company were entertained at James Harsh's Hotel.
However, the Columbia and Ironville never reached the village of Ironville. The closest it got to its goal was Ninth and Walnut Streets. At- tempts to purchase right of way for a line to Ironville were opposed by farmers living along the route and the plan was dropped.
The cars of the "Belt Line" started at the Penn- sylvania Railroad station at Front and Walnut Streets, Columbia, and operated up Walnut to Second, over Second to Locust and then up Lo- cust to Ninth. The cars then turned over Ninth to Walnut and followed down Walnut Street to the station.
Another route operated by the local company was opened for service about four days later than
35
the Walnut and Locust Streets line. This route started at Second and Cedar, in Second to Union, up Union to Fourth, out Fourth to Manor and then up Manor to Fourteenth Street, which was the end of the route. The cars returned on the same route to Fourth and Union, thence over Fourth to Walnut, there joining the Walnut Street line.
Early belt line motormen were Philip Hable, Frank Greulich, Edward Collins and William Campbell. The first conductors were Charles Young, Louis Smith, John Ford and William Haberstroah. The supeintendent's office was lo- cated at the carbarn on Commerce Street, while the general office of the company was located on Locust Street.
During the first years of operation, the Colum- bia "Belt" resembled very much the "Tooner- ville" trolley of the comic strip. The short, light cars jerked and bounced as they traveled over the light, unevenly laid rails. Originally the cars were equipped with open platforms and the motorman was forced to be in the open in all kinds of weather. However, after one of the cars struck a team of horses on Manor Street in 1893, because the motorman was blinded by snow, the company equipped the cars with closed vestibules to pro- tect the employees from the weather.
Derailments were quite frequent, and according to the old newspapers it seems that hardly a day went by without at least one of the "belt" cars getting off the track and running into someone's wagon or front yard. During the winter of 1894, so many of the closed cars, that were used in Columbia, were out of service because of damages from collisions that the company was forced to put its open summer cars in service during the winter months. This, of course, brought howls of protest from shivering passengers and the local line became known as the "Pneumonia Line".
The Marietta Line
Although the towns of Columbia and Marietta are only four miles apart, for many years the only method of travel between them was by horse and wagon over the toll road or by the infrequent train service of the Pennsylvania Railroad.
It was for that reason that a trolley line was planned between Columbia and Marietta.
On January 4, 1893, a company known as the Columbia and Donegal Electric Railway was chartered to build to Marietta by way of Klines- ville and Chickies Park.
William Given was president of the new com- pany and Frank Given was superintendent.
The Marietta line was truly a pioneer project as never before had an attempt been made in Pennsylvania to build a trolley road over such hilly terrain as there is between Columbia and Marietta. In those days the construction of a trolley line over Chickies Hill was considered an engineering feat of no small importance.
The steepest grade on the new line was 6.2 feet in one hundred and continued for 1900 feet, which was quite a climb for the little trolley cars of those days. The grading and laying of rails and the erection of overhead wires between Columbia and Chickies Park continued during the months of May and June, 1893. It was also necessary to construct a trestle over a stream ot the foot of the eastern slope of Chickies Hill.
As the Marietta line and the "belt" line would be operated by the same management, the cars of the two roads would share the car barn on Commerce Street in Columbia. However, the original power house of the C. & I. was unable to generate sufficient energy to propel cars on both lines, so it was necessary to install additional fa- cilities to generate power. Equipment of the new power plant consisted of a 200-h.p. Westinghouse engine and a 100-h.p. tubular boiler, built by the firm of Fairer and Sons. Power was furnished from a 160-h.p. multipolar compound generator. The new machinery was erected under the super- vision of B. F. Connor, president and manager of the Suplee Steam Engine Company.
Four new cars were purchased. Two of these were of the closed type and two were of the open or summer type. They were painted a bright blue with yellowing lettering and trim. The Marietta cars were much heavier and larger than the "belt" line's cars.
July 1, 1893, was quite an occasion in Colum- bia, as the formal opening of the line to Chickies was held that day. The first official trip started from the car house at noon, carrying trolley offi- cials and invited guests over the new line. Several cars were necessary to convey everybody to the park. Hundreds lined the right of way to watch the first car pass enroute to Chickies Park. On arrival at Chickies, a banquet was held provided by Payne, the caterer. The remainder of the af- ternoon was spent in eating, drinking and speech making.
After the formal opening of the line, the road was opened the following day to the public. Hun-
36
dreds flocked on the cars to take the scenic trip to Chickies. At the park was located a restaurant, dancing pavilion and picnic tables. On the first 4th of July that line was opened, over four thou- sand persons rode to Chickies which was quite a record.
With the opening of the line as far as Chickies, the officials devoted their efforts to the comple- tion of the line to Marietta. Additional contracts were awarded on September 1, 1893, and work- men started removing trees and clearing for a right of way on September 16, 1893. Work pro- gressed rather slowly at first as it was necessary to dig out a right of way descending the northern slope of Chickies Hill. It should be remembered that all of this work was done by pick and shovel.
The first car to run through from Columbia to Marietta was Columbia and Donegal No. 1, with Frank Given at the controller. The first car left the carbarn at Columbia at 10:15 P.M., on De- cember 31, 1893, and arrived in Marietta at 12:10 A.M., January 1, 1894. Few lines can lay claim to being opened at midnight New Year's Eve! The ice on the wires caused the first car to throw flashes of blue sparks, which caused quite a bit of excitement along the line.
On New Year's Day the Marietta line was put into regular operation, and many persons tried out the new trolley line. Some of the country peo- ple along the line at first were hesitant in board- ing the cars, fearing that once their foot touched the step they would be electrocuted as the car had a pole touching the electric wire overhead.
Some of the first trolleymen on the Marietta line were Peter Maurer, Edward Brady, William English, John Horn, John Vaughen, Joseph Rankey, Cleon Hougentogler, and Edward Bittner.
The Lancaster Line
The Lancaster and Columbia Electric Railway was constructed under the laws of Pennsylvania on March 24, 1891, to build and operate an elec- tric street railway from Lancaster to Columbia.
The line from Lancaster to Columbia was con- structed during the summer of 1893 by the Lan- caster Traction Company. Car No. 17 made the first trip from Lancaster to the east end of the bridge over the Pennsylvania Railroad at Mount- ville on July 14, 1893. The officials of the new line were greatly pleased with the operation of the
line, regardless of the fact that at several places they had to get out and help push the car up hills.
A controversy arose between the traction com- pany, the Lancaster and Susquehanna Turnpike, and the Pennsylvania Railroad over the use of the bridge at Mountville. This delayed the com- pletion of the line into Columbia. It was not until August that a settlement was reached over the use of the Mountville bridge, in order that cars could run through to Columbia. Finally, on Au- gust 25, 1893, Lancaster Traction car No. 4, in charge of motorman Edward Bittner and con- ductor Cleon Hougentogler, made the first through trip from Lancaster to Columbia.
The route of the Lancaster Traction's line to Columbia differed only slightly from the pro- posed line of the Lancaster and Columbia. In- stead of operating in Lancaster Avenue to Locust Street, the line swung to the south about a quar- ter of a mile west of Kaylor's School, and entered Columbia by way of Manor Street over the tracks of the local Columbia line.
The Pennsylvania Traction Company
On February 5, 1894, all of the trolley lines op- erating in Columbia were acquired by the Penn- sylvania Traction Company, of which William B. Given was general manager. The lines in Colum- bia ceased to be independent companies and be- came known as the "Columbia and Donegal Division" of the Pennsylvania Traction. All of the existing rolling stock was re-lettered, re-num- bered and the color scheme was changed to red with yellow lettering and trim.
It was under the management of the Pennsyl- vania Traction that the worst trolley accident in the history of Lancaster County occurred. This wreck involved car No. 61 on the Marietta line and took the lives of six passengers.
On Sunday evening, August 9, 1896, a band concert was given at Chickies Park. During the evening a severe thunder storm occurred. Those who did not leave the park before the storm had to wait until the storm was over as it was not the practice then to operate trolleys during severe electrical storms. The first car to arrive at the park after the storm was car No. 61, in charge of motorman Adam Foehlinger and conductor Harry Hershey, bound for Columbia. A great crowd rushed onto the car, filling all the available seats, crowding the aisles and standing on the
37
front and rear platforms. The car left the park about 10 o'clock filled to overflowing. The trip as far as Klinesville was uneventful.
At Klinesville, two passengers desired to get off but because of the wet rails, the car was unable to stop at the crossing and ran beyond about fifty yards before it was halted. The car was then backed to Klinesville to discharge the passengers. Shortly after leaving Klinesville for Columbia, the passengers noticed a queer thumping sound under the car, which was followed by a great in- crease of speed. The passengers soon became aware that the car was out of control and they became panic-stricken. To add to the excitement, the trolley pole left the wire leaving the car in total darkness. At the foot of the Klinesville hill, the car left the rails, shot across the road, struck a tree and then tumbled down a thirty-foot em- bankment, landing on its roof with the wheels and motor high in the air.
Six persons were killed and sixty-eight injured. Among those killed were motorman Foehlinger and chief burgess of Columbia, H. H. Heise. Others who lost their lives were William Pinker- ton, Henry Smith, W. J. Ludlow and William Metzger. After a hearing, which lasted several days, full responsibility for the accident was laid on the Pennsylvania Traction Company. It was pointed out that the cars were not equipped with sand, they were overloaded contrary to rules that the company did not enforce, and that the car had been put out the day of the wreck without proper inspection (the brakes had failed to work). To prevent future occurrence of such an accident, a safety switch was installed on Klines- ville hill, at which all cars were required to stop before proceeding to Columbia.
The Pennsylvania Traction Company's exis- tence was short-lived. Damage claims resulting from the Klinesville wreck and mismanagement put the organization in a perilous financial con- dition, which finally ended in complete bank- ruptcy. Finally, in June of 1899, the court ordered that the Pennsylvania Traction be sold at public sale.
During the early days of the trolleys the work of motormen and conductors was hard and long. In some cars they were exposed to the weather as there were no closed vestibules on these cars. Trolley men not only worked long hours but re- ceived poor pay besides. However, the trolley men's job had its good side also. Annual banquets were held in Columbia for all the traction em-
ployees, and this custom was kept up for many years after the coming of the Conestoga Trac- tion. At Christmas time trolley patrons gave the motormen and conductors gifts of chickens, gro- ceries and money. Senator Quay, who lived along the Columbia-Lancaster line, gave every trolley- man a five-dollar gold piece. These gifts were an attempt to make up for the poor wages the men on the trolley cars received.
The Conestoga Traction Company
The property of the bankrupt Pennsylvania Traction Company was acquired by the newly organized Conestoga Traction Company on De- cember 12, 1899.
Soon the old, light cars were replaced by heav- ier and speedier types. Hand brakes gave way to air brakes and other safety appliances came into use. Various types of cars were operated, such as open summer cars, closed winter cars and combi- nation passenger and baggage cars.
The Conestoga Traction transformed the local lines in Columbia from "Toonerville" type sys- tems to modern up-to-date electric lines. Car ser- vice was more frequent and operated on depend- able schedules. Soon shippers had the benefits of trolley freight service to Columbia in 1901 and to Marietta in 1905. Cars were operated with greater safety with the installation of electric signals, and soon the company became known as one of the best maintained and equipped electric lines in the state.
Trolleys were used to haul funerals between the home and cemetery, especially in the rural districts.
Many interesting and often humorous inci- dents can be told about trolley operations. Mo- tormen had their hands full around the 4th of July and Hallowe'en, with pranksters putting off firecrackers under the car or pulling the pole off the wire. The story is told of an open car that failed to make the sharp turn at Fourth and Manor Streets (Columbia), but instead landed its passengers in a nearby stock pen. Once a freight car, pulling a flat car loaded with kegs of beer, was sideswiped by a passenger car at a turn- out in East Columbia. Several of the kegs were broken open by the impact, causing the liquid to flow out onto the street.
Not all events in trolley operation were humor- ous. A freight car once operating up Locust Street, so frightened a horse, that he bolted from his harness and dashed up the sidewalk, striking
38
a man with such force that he was hurled against a tree, fracturing his skull.
Once a Marietta car was hit by a bolt of light- ning on the long Chickies trestle putting the mo- tors out of commission. No one was injured but the car had to stand in this perilous position un- til a car arrived from Columbia.
However, serious derailments and delays were few. During snowstorms large rotary plows kept the tracks cleared so that cars could operate on schedule. Only on few occasions was the line closed by snowdrifts and then not for a long pe- riod. The trolley service of the Conestoga Trac- tion was far more dependable than the winter bus service in the county.
The Conestoga Traction Company was reor- ganized as the Conestoga Transportation Com- pany in the early thirties and because of lack of trolley patronage embarked on plans for bus sub- stitution.
The first local line to be abandoned was the Marietta line. At 11:15 P.M., April 25, 1932, the last car pulled away from the square at Marietta, thus ending almost forty years of dependable car service.
Columbians saw the last of the "Belt" line with its familiar motorman, Peter Maurer, who ran the belt car forty years, when the last trip was made on June 4, 1932. Old "Pete" and the belt car had become sort of a local institution during the years that it operated. The freight service that was once called "The Quickest and Best" was discontinued when the last freight car pulled out of the freight station on Commerce Street on June 29, 1932.
February 14, 1938, was the last day that elec- tric trolleys operated in Columbia. At midnight, the last car bearing "Funeral" signs pulled out at Fourth and Locust Streets with George Erwin, veteran CTCO motorman, at the controller.
RAILROADS AT COLUMBIA SINCE 1834
A few farsighted individuals urged upon the Legislature the necessity for railroad construc- tion.
A bill proposed by John Stevens was passed March 31, 1823, incorporating the Pennsylvania Railroad and naming John Connelly, Michael Baker, Horace Binney, Samuel Humphreys and Stephen Girard, of Philadelphia, Elmor Bradley, of Chester County, Amos Ellmaker, of Lancaster, and John Barber and William Wright of Colum- bia, as incorporators.
The road was to be built from Columbia to Philadelphia, and was at the time the longest section of railroad yet projected.
The projectors did not know that the canal, which had not yet been planned, would terminate at Columbia and it was finally dropped by lack of popular interest.
Three years later, April 7, 1826, the Legislature again took up the railroad proposition, and granted a charter to the Columbia, Lancaster and Philadelphia railroad. The incorporators in this new railroad venture were Richard Peters, Sam- uel Archer, Simon Gratz and Levi Ellmaker, of Philadelphia, Geo. B. Porter, James Buchanan, Amos Ellmaker and Samuel Dale, of Lancaster, Joshua Hunt, Richard Thomas and David Town- send, of Chester County, and John Barber, Jacob Strickler, James Given, and James Clyde of Columbia.
The State had appropriated large sums of money for improvements to navigation on the streams, its erection of bridges, the building of turnpikes and the construction of canals and now had turned to the building of railroads. The cost of building a railroad being too great for private enterprise, the estimate on the building of the railroad was one million and twelve thousand dollars.
On March 24, 1828, the Legislature passed a bill authorizing the Canal commission to examine the route from Columbia to Philadelphia, with a view of constructing a canal or railroad between the two mentioned places. They reported in favor of a railroad, with an incline plane at the eastern part of Columbia and also at the Schuylkill.
The incline plane was destined to draw the cars to the top of the higher ground, back from the river. Flat iron rails were spiked upon stone sleepers, laid lengthwise.
They are of red sandstone, about 14 inches square, and 18 inches high, and may be readily recognized by the two holes about 6 inches apart and about 11/2 inches in diameter, which are drilled in one side.
On Monday, March 31, 1834 three cars drawn by horses arrived in Columbia from Lancaster.
On April 2, the same year, the first trip over this part of the road was made with a locomotive drawing three passenger cars. The cars were small, stagecoach-like affairs, each holding about six people, and the engine was simply a flat truck having two drive wheels and four pony wheels on which the boiler rested. The fire box was dome-
39
shaped, and large enough to accommodate a cord of wood cut in half. Wood was the only fuel used on engines during the first twenty years of rail- roading. The steam chests on this first engine were in a sloping position, alongside the base of the large smoke stack and the piston rods were connected directly with the driving wheels.
There was no cab or roof of any kind on the locomotive and the engineer, who was also the fireman, stood at all times right out in any kind of weather.
The opening of the new railroad was April 16, 1834.
The long passenger coach was not used on the railroad until November 1835. For several years lumber and other merchandise was handled on cars drawn by horses. The cost of maintaining the steam engines at the head of the Incline Plane was found to be too expensive and the Canal Commissioners were instructed by the State to survey another route to avoid the Plane. The work on this new road bed was started in 1837 and finished in 1839.
The site of this new road is the same now occu- pied by the tracks of the Pennsylvania Railroad and connected with the old road about five and a half miles east of Columbia.
In May 1855 an act was passed by the State Legislature to provide for the sale of the State- owned railroad, of which the Columbia and Phil- adelphia railroad was a part, to a private corpo- ration. The price asked was seven and a half mil- lion dollars, which was much below the amount the State had expended in the building of the road. The sale under this bill was never made, as the group of men who were promoting the com- pany could not sell the required amount of stock.
On the 16th of May, 1857, another act was passed for the sale of the main line of the Public Work and the consideration asked was the same as in the former bill, but there was a clause in- serted requiring the purchaser to pay to the State addition installments amounting to a million and a half dollars covering a period of forty years. The new company was also to be relieved of the payment of state taxes on tonnage or its capital stock. An organization was formed by Philadel- phia capitalists who sold enough stock in the new venture to buy the State road. The purchase was made and thus was born the Pennsylvania Rail- road.
The new company immediately began to make improvement and in the course of the next
twenty years spent many times the original cost of the road.
In the days of the first railroad, The Columbia and Philadelphia, the terminal of the road was at the basin, at which point, passengers for the west were transferred to canal boats. The State road did not have a regular depot, but tickets were sold and patrons waited for trains in the old Ferry House Tavern, which stood on ground later occupied by the Roundhouse.
This arrangement continued from the found- ing of the railroad in 1835 to 1857, when the de- pot was moved to Walnut and Front Sts., to the Washington Hotel, kept at the time by Daniel Herr. This was the station until 1870 when a con- tract was awarded by the Pennsylvania Railroad for the erection of an up-to-date passenger depot on the north corner of Front and Walnut Streets. When opened for business early in 1871 this building was one of the best depots on the Penn- sylvania Railroad.
About 1870 the Company purchased more than a solid block of Front St., running north from Bridge Street. The buildings, including the fa- mous old Ferry House, were torn away and one of the largest roundhouses on the Pennsylvania Railroad was built. This roundhouse and the shops attached, employed many men between 1872 and 1904, when, after the building of the Low Grade Railroad, many crews were taken away from Columbia and the railroad business here began to decline.
All was quiet "along the road" since then until February 1937, when the much-rumored and long looked forward-to Electrification program was announced. This project, a cost running far into the millions, embraced the electrification of all Pennsylvania trackage between Paoli and Harrisburg, including the Main Line, Columbia Branch, and the Low Grade system.
COAL CHUTES PROVIDED QUICK MEANS OF LOADING SHIPMENTS
Prior to the burning of the Columbia Bridge by the Military forces during the Civil War in 1863, boats filled with soft coal and other merchandise were brought down the Pennsylvania Canal, towed across the bridge and taken down the tide water canal to Baltimore. After the bridge had started operation in Columbia the hard coal op- erators wished to find an outlet to the south for their product. In 1867 the R & C started to build wharves, better known as the coal chutes, were
40
situated on the north side of Locust Street at the river shore. They were, as the name implies, structures from which coal could be rapidly transferred from cars to boats.
The wharf was built up on piers of sandstone blocks about sixteen feet high, the first two of which were on shore and the other four were in the river and it was between these piers that the canal boats passed to be filled. On the top of the piers were heavy timbers over which ran the six railroad tracks, and the whole thing was covered with a plank floor. Between the rails in each track there were three openings, called coal pock- ets, beneath each of which was a hopper, direct- ing the coal into the hold of the boat.
RAISED $42,900 IN SEVERAL DAYS WHEN READING ROAD FORMED
The old State road had been in operation for twenty-two years when on May 19, 1857, the Reading and Columbia Railroad was incorpo- rated by seven gentlemen from Reading, Ephrata, Lancaster and James Myers, Samuel Schock, J. G. Hess, Wm. A. Martin, Amos S. Green, H. M. North, Samuel W. Mifflin and M. M. Strickler, of Columbia.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.